Everyone’s A Critic.

Earl and I went and saw “Superman Returns” tonight. Reading various reviews online, reaction to the movie has been rather mixed but we both agree that it was the best film we’ve seen this year.

I really like Brandon Routh as Superman. He carries Superman with just enough twinkle and a touch of cockiness in his eye. I thought the cinematography and special effects were absolutely superb. From the pacing of the movie to the musical score, the whole film has a nostalgic air about it that makes a person from my generation, having grown up with the Christopher Reeves films, quite comfortable with the experience.

Earl and I are thinking about catching this movie again as we hope to see the IMAX version. I’ve always been a big fan of superheroes and “Superman Returns” definitely lives up to my high expectations.

I lost interest in American Idol a couple of weeks before we went on vacation. I think it was the week before Kellie Pickler was voted off. Now that I think about it, it was that Chicken Little guy’s lisp that threw me over the edge. I either had to turn off the television or hit the bottle harder than Paula Abdul.

Anyways, Earl came home from a business dinner tonight and promptly turned on the TiVo to watch American Idol. I wasn’t going to watch it with him, but I didn’t want to clean the house or do anything else productive, so I sat down and prepared myself to be underwhelmed.

I must say that one performance tonight blew me completely out of the water, and that was Katharine McPhee and “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”.

Now I pride myself on the fact that I have excellent pitch recall. I can sing a known song in tune and in it’s original key without having to hear it first. If I had paid attention to my music education classes at SUNY Fredonia, I’d probably have perfect pitch in the sense that if I was told to sing a B-flat I could sing it without having to hear it first. (By the way, I can sing a B-flat without prompting, just ask me to do it someday). I feel that at the any serious performer must have at the very least pitch recall and should really have perfect pitch.

Katharine sang the beginning of “Rainbow” a cappella (without accompaniment). When the band joined her about a quarter of the way into the song, she was in perfect tune with the band. There was no indiscreet harmonica bleat at the beginning to prep her, she had taken the ear piece out so we know she wasn’t hearing anything there, no, Katharine was singing on her own musical and vocal ability. And for the first time in a long time, I was impressed with a performance on American Idol.

Katharine captured the emotion of “Rainbow”, didn’t oversing it like Sam Harris did back in the 80s when he wanted to Patti LaBelle and had the stage presence of a star by actually sitting on the floor of the stage and taking the intimate approach. It worked for her.

My instrumental teacher in high school was rarely impressed. With him it was either perfect or anything else was pretty much embarassing. I hold performances of myself and of others to that same standard. I know when I suck.

And I know when another shines. And Katharine McPhee shined tonight.

J.P. is a freelance writer on the internet. To the relief of many, he isn’t paid for a word he says. After a brilliant high school musical career, including his line stopping performance as Mr. Whitney in “Anything Goes”, he flunked out of SUNY Fredonia while pursuing a career in music education due to lack of interest on all parties involved.

Earl is sharing some great pictures from our adventure on his blog. Take a gander if you get a chance.

This morning I was checking up on the American Idol Message Boards before getting ready to work and found out that the third time is a charm.

I’ve been banned from the AI message boards under three different usernames.

Apparently only pro-contestant responses are allowed, because each time I’ve been thrown off the board it was because I made a negative remark about the finalist dubbed “Chicken Little”, Kevin Covais.

I’m sure Kevin is a nice kid. This past episode he showed off his cocky side by sassing back to the mean ol’ judge Simon Cowell. And he sailed through this week’s round without a problem, undoubtedly plumping up his ego a little more. Paula “I’m stoned or drunk betcha can’t guess which” Abdul keeps telling him how sexy and “squishy” he is. I think he’s believing his own hype.

My issue with the kid is that he has a serious speech impediment. Or a therious thpeech impediment. And I can’t get past that.

It’s not the kid’s fault that he has this impediment. His parents probably should have had whatever is causing it corrected when he was younger. But there he is singing “Isn’t she lovely” and covering my television screen with spit. Apparently you can’t bring attention to this on the AI boards because it’s consider rude and inappropriate. Another no-no is mentioning Vote For The Worst.com, the site that is encouraging people to vote for the worst AI contestant so they’re stuck with a turkey in the finals.

So I’m off the AI boards. I can take a hint. I’m probably done with the show too.

It’s Tuesday, and you know what that means! American Idol is on the tube tonight! I’m excited about tonight’s show because I’m curious to see if Paula Abdul continues her journey down Intoxicated Blvd. with tonight’s performances. I’m guessing she is going to parrot Randy’s praise or criticism and then interrupt Simon while he spews out his opinions. She’ll probably bonk him over the head once or twice as well and tell him to be quiet. She’ll pepper her comments with the word “pitchy”.

She’ll manage all this with a certain slur to her speech that isn’t easily duplicated.

I know it’s not nice to pick on Paula Abdul, after all, several pre-teens on the American Idol message boards have told me, and the other tens of thousands of people joining in on the fun, that’s we are quite rude for expecting Paula to be sober for the tapings of the show.

As far as performances go, tonight will be one of the first nights that I’ll be able to enjoy the show in quite a while because there’s no threat of Brenna, the terror of a contestant that had little in talent and a whole lot in obnoxious. Last week we were given the pleasure of seeing her leave the competition, but unfortunately that gave her the opportunity to screech one more time through Donna Summer’s “Last Dance” per American Idol’s, “You had the lowest votes, America has asked you to leave, but sing for us one more time!” policy. In a display of her typical ignorance, Brenna changed the words to “Last Dance” during her final performance to infer that she would dance for money.

Wouldn’t surprise me to see internet pictures of her pole dancing someday. Not that I would actively look for that sort of thing.

Earl and I were watching TV Land yesterday afternoon when we saw an advertisement for the third season of Wonder Woman on DVD. It’s being released tomorrow (Tuesday, June 7)! When we pick it up tomorrow, I will be able to proudly proclaim that we own all the episodes of Wonder Woman in their entirety.

And then at the end of this month – its the first season of Bewitched AND the short lived Tabitha series on Bewitched.

I’m on DVD heaven.